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Jaco Pastorius

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Jaco Pastorius, born John Francis Anthony Pastorius III (December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987) was a jazz bassist and composer, notable for his virtuoso technique and fretless bass playing style. His influence on the modern electric bass is widely recognized. He was largely responsible for the popularization of the fretless electric bass. He introduced a textural approach and harmonic sense to bass playing that became the signature "Jaco" sound. Jaco's technique and style have profoundly influenced electric bassists in jazz and in other genres. Although he was acclaimed as a virtuoso and a genius, his well-documented off stage antics would eventually cost him his life.

Contents

Early history

Jaco was the first of three sons born to John Francis Pastorius II and Stephanie Katherine Haapala Pastorius. Although Jaco was born in Pennsylvania, the family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida when Jaco was very young.

Jaco went through elementary and middle school at St. Clement's Catholic School (he was an altar boy at the adjoining church) in nearby Wilton Manors, and went to high school at Northeast High in Oakland Park. He was a gifted athlete, excelling at every sport he played. He particularly loved football, basketball, and baseball, and picked up music as well at a very early age. Jaco often got into trouble with other kids in the neighborhood for his arrogance; once, he was ambushed at football tryouts by an upset quarterback. The result was a broken left wrist, which severely affected his drumming ability. He played drums in a local brass band, Las Olas Brass, and was eventually let go by the bandleader for a more experienced and talented drummer. However, the Las Olas bass player David Neubauer was leaving, opening a bass position which Jaco offered to fill.

Nickname

Born "John Francis Pastorius III", he took the confirmation name Anthony to become John Francis Anthony Pastorius III. He loved basketball, and often watched basketball with his father, whose nickname was "Jack". Jaco's nickname was influenced by his love of sports and also by the umpire "Jocko" Conlon. He changed the spelling from "Jocko" to "Jaco" after the pianist Alex Darqui sent him a note. Darqui, who was French, assumed the name was spelled "Jaco." Jaco apparently liked the new spelling and started to use it.

Love of music

Originally a drummer, following in the footsteps of his father, stand-up drummer Jack Pastorius, Jaco switched to bass at age 15, after receiving an injury to his wrist. In about 1970, he began playing in a nine-piece horn band at the time called Las Olas Brass, which covered popular material of the day by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, James Brown and the Tijuana Brass.

Influences

He cited his greatest influences as James Brown, The Beatles, Miles Davis, and Stravinsky, in that order. These artists represent the four styles that Jaco pulled from to create his signature sound; funk/R&B, rock, jazz, and classical. Other musical influences include:

Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinsky, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, The Band, Santana, Frank Zappa, Bob Marley, Rocco Prestia, Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, Cannonball Adderley, Jerry Jemmott and Lucas Cottle (an unknown New Zealand bassist who frequently performed with Jaco Pastorius)

Music career

He played music throughout his youth, drawing on influences like Jerry Jemmott, James Jamerson, Paul Chambers, Harvey Brooks and Tommy Cogbill and honing his chops and developing his keen and smart songwriting prowess in bands like Wayne Cochran and The C.C. Riders, and playing on various local R&B and jazz records during that time. In 1974, he began playing with his friend and later famous jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. They soon started recording together; first with Paul Bley as leader and Bruce Ditmas on drums which is titled "Jaco", then with drummer Bob Moses. Metheny and Jaco recorded an album which is considered a benchmark in the history of fusion, Bright Size Life. In 1975, Pastorius met up with Blood, Sweat and Tears drummer Bobby Colomby, who had been given the green light by CBS records to find "new talent" for their jazz division. During this time, he had run into keyboardist Josef Zawinul in Miami, Florida, where his band, Weather Report was playing. According to Zawinul, Jaco walked up to him after a concert the previous night and talked about the performance and how it was "all right" but he had "expected more". When he introduced himself to Zawinul, he added "I'm the world's greatest bass player". Zawinul responded with a "Get the fuck out of here!", apparently unhappy about his criticism of the concert or Jaco's immodesty. One of the two ladies who were present with Zawinul when Jaco approached him, either a Miami journalist or the concert promoter, evidently knew about Jaco's unusual talent and gave Zawinul the elbow and whispered, "You should check him out."

Pastorius' first album, produced by Colomby and entitled Jaco Pastorius (1976), was a breakthrough album for the electric bass. Many consider this to be the finest bass album ever recorded; when it exploded onto the jazz scene it was instantly recognized as a classic. The album also boasted a lineup of heavyweights in the jazz community at the time, who were essentially his stellar back up band, including Herbie Hancock, David Sanborn, Lenny White and Michael Brecker among others. Shortly after the release of the album, Jaco made guest appearances on records all over the jazz canvas, (Mott The Hoople's Ian Hunter's solo album and Al Di Meola's solo album are standouts). Soon after that, Pastorius was invited to join fusion band Weather Report, where he played alongside Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter until 1981. It is with Weather Report that Pastorius made his indelible mark on jazz music, being featured on one of the most popular jazz albums of all time, Heavy Weather.

During the course of his musical career, Pastorius played on dozens of recording sessions for other musicians, both in and out of jazz circles. Some of his most notable are four highly regarded albums with acclaimed singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell: Hejira (1976), Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (1977), Mingus (1979) and the live album Shadows and Light (1980). His influence was most dominant on Hejira, and many of the songs on that album seem to be composed using the bass as a melodic source of inspiration.

By the time he and Weather Report amicably parted ways in early 1981, Jaco had already been pursuing his interests in creating a Big Band solo project, one that found its debut aurally on his second solo release, which was distributed by Warner Brothers, Word of Mouth (which was also the name of the Big Band). Like his 1976 debut, Word Of Mouth also boasted guest appearances by several distinguished jazz musicians; Herbie Hancock appears again here, as does Weather Report alumnus Wayne Shorter and Peter Erskine, and other legends such as harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans and Hubert Laws.

The songwriting on Word Of Mouth overshadowed his bass playing to a degree and really opened the eyes of a lot of people who thought that his prowess was confined to the electric bass. His production and ability to bring together a project that was recorded on both coasts of the United States was stunning indeed.

He toured in 1982; a swing through Japan was the highlight (and it was at this time that bizarre tales of Jaco's deteriorating behavior first surfaced). That tour was released in Japan as "Twins I" and "Twins II" and was condensed for an American release which was known as "Invitation".

His increasingly erratic behavior began to affect his musical career (see below), and he was eventually dropped by Warner Brothers. By 1984, the Word Of Mouth Big Band had also splintered. He managed to record a third solo album, which made it as far as some unpolished demo tapes, a steel pans tinged release entitled Holiday for Pans, which once again showcased him as more of a tunesmith and producer than a bass player. He couldn't find a distributor for the album and the album was never released, however it has been widely bootlegged since. (In 2003, a cut from Holiday for Pans, entitled "Good Morning Anya", was included on Rhino Records' anthology Punk Jazz.)

Near the end of his career, He guested on low-key releases by jazz artists such as guitarist Mike Stern and drummer Brian Melvin.

Instruments and technique

Pastorius was most identified by his use of two well-worn Fender Jazz Basses from the early 1960's. One was a fretted model, the other was fretless. The fretless was originally a fretted bass from which the frets had been removed by the previous owner. The removal was done improperly, but Jaco had a background in repairing broken instruments so he used wood filler to fill in the remaining grooves where the frets had been, along with the holes created where chunks of the fretboard had been taken out. Jaco then sanded down the fingerboard, and applied several coats of marine epoxy to prevent the rough Rotosound roundwound bass strings he used from eating into the bare wood. Even though he played both the fretted and the fretless basses frequently, he preferred the fretless, because he felt frets were a hindrance, once calling them "speed bumps."

The famous "Jaco growl" is obtained by using the bridge pickup exclusively and plucking the strings close to it. Additionally, unlike most electric bassists before him, Jaco used the EQ (equalization) controls on his Acoustic Amplifiers to boost the midrange frequencies, thus accentuating the natural growling tone of his fretless Passive Fender Jazz Bass and roundwound string combination. His tone was also colored by the use of a flanger (an offboard sound modification device similar to a phase shifter) which gave a slight doubling effect, and his exclusive use of the original Acoustic brand bass amplifier. He would often use the distortion control built in on the Acoustic amp. Other effects he used live were his octaver (an offboard effect pedal which provides a 2nd tone an octave lower) and his MXR Delay pedal which can be heard on his live solo spot with Weather Report, 'Slang' (Jaco tastefully loops a short extract of playing, and then solos over it). Pastorius was a master of using natural and artificial harmonics to extend the range of the bass (exemplified in the bass solo Portrait Of Tracy off of his eponymous album) and could achieve a nearly horn-like tone simply by changing the tone control and his playing technique. He developed his tremendous technique and speed simply through years of touring and gigs.

Both of his '62 Fender basses were stolen shortly before he entered Bellevue hospital in 1986; they were never recovered. Jaco also had two Jaydee Basses made for him shortly before he died; a fretted and a fretless. An unknown seller claimed he had one of Jaco's guitars and attempted to sell it on ebay in the late 1990's, but after much online protest by Pastorius fans, the item was removed from the online auction site.

The rumor that he used chicken grease when performing live to move faster along his bass guitar's fretboard is long disputed; it would seem more probable that he built up the speed on his instrument simply by gigging for most of his life, and that this was another's "musician's fable" (Chicken grease is not generally known to be a good lubricant for guitar strings).

Health problems and death

In the early to mid-1980s, Pastorius began to experience mental health problems, including symptoms of bipolar disorder. These were worsened by heavy recreational drug and alcohol use. Although his on-stage and off-stage antics were already well-documented, his mental health and addiction problems served to exacerbate his unusual and often bizarre behaviour. There are dozens of anecdotes and stories about his outlandish behavior and eccentricities, though some were highly exaggerated. His musical performances also suffered. During this time he played in various solo acts and many nightclubs in Fort Lauderdale and New York City. He fell out of public favor and became an outcast in the music business. His final address while alive was Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale. After sneaking onstage at a Carlos Santana concert September 11, 1987, he made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida. He was trying to show off his playing. There he was brutally beaten into a coma after an altercation with the manager of the club, Luc Havan, who was trained in martial arts. Coincidentally, this location is barely one mile from his childhood home. He suffered irreversible brain damage. After life support was removed, his heart continued to beat for three hours.

Jaco Pastorius died on September 21, 1987, just ten weeks short of his 36th birthday (incidentally, within weeks of the age at which Mozart died), at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. He is buried at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale. Havan was charged with aggravated battery, and served four months in prison. He had no idea who Pastorius was, and only learned about his fame through newspaper reports of the incident.

The recorded legacy he left behind, particularly the work with Weather Report, Joni Mitchell and his own Word of Mouth band, remains for the ages.

Miles Davis honored the late bassist on his album Amandla with the Marcus Miller composition "Mr. Pastorius," as Jaco was an inspiration to Marcus Miller.

Jpcover.JPG

Discography

Cover of anthology album Punk Jazz.
Enlarge
Cover of anthology album Punk Jazz.

Solo/bandleader

Weather Report

Other Projects

References

External links

 

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